Southern Cooking – Stewed Okra and Tomatoes

Tonight Jay and I are going to cook southern food for Nanny, so I wanted to share with you today two of my favorite recipes that can be eaten together for a delicious meal!

Okra is available around these parts all the time, but if you can’t find fresh okra just use frozen – it will still taste delicious!

The ingredients for this are so simple: Okra, tomatoes, and garlic!

Disclaimer: I had some roasted tomatoes left over from a party, so I threw some of them and some of the oil in the pan before I started cooking the okra. Regular olive oil is just fine, but this is yet ANOTHER way that those tomatoes can be used! Keep them around all the time!

Use about 2 cloves of garlic for every serving – more if you like things really garlicky! Cut the okra into small bites – use the tops too, and mince the garlic and halve the tomatoes.

Clearly one whole tomato would work just fine here. Don’t be silly. Chop it up and move on.

When the pan is hot, add the tomatoes with a little bit of olive oil, and saute them for about a minute. See how great those roasted tomatoes look? When the tomatoes start to sear a little, add in the okra and a sprinkle of salt.

Yum! Stir this around for 3-6 minutes until the okra starts to get a little soft and brown around the edges. If the pan gets too hot add a splash of water and turn down the heat – it’ll cook out!

Once the okra is nearly cooked and the delicious okra slime is released, add the garlic and stir everything for 2 more minutes. Taste and see if you’d like to add more salt!

See? I added some water and the tomatoes and okra released some water. Once the liquid is nearly gone I served the okra with buttered bread and HOT SAUCE FISH which is delicious and spicy and buttery and amazing. That’ll be posted later today!